On January 6, 2016, APN hosted Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer of the Israel Democracy Institute for a conversation on the current state of Israeli democracy, as it faces new government measures to enhance the Netanyahu government’s hegemony and to stifle dissent.

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Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer is Vice President of Research at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law, where he served as Dean. He is an expert on criminal, military, and public law, and widely considered as a leading expert on Israeli democracy and democracy education. At the IDI, he has been leading the following projects: Constitutional Principles and their Implementation, National Security and Democracy, Arab-Jewish Relations, and Proportionality in Public Policy.

Warren Spielberg is an associate teaching professor at the New School for Public Engagement in New York and a fellow at the Child Institute at al-Quds University in the West Bank. On November 24, we talked to him about his recent study on young Palestinian men in East Jerusalem. We focused on the causes for frustration and anger among them in order to better understand some of the background causes for the current violence in Jerusalem. Prof. Spielberg also spoke about his newly published book, a study of young African-American men, and about the parallels between that demographic and young Palestinian men in East Jerusalem.

Author Dan Ephron, whose new book documents the events that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the assassination’s aftermath, was APN’s guest on a briefing call on November 2, 2015.

In Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, Ephron tells the parallel stories of Rabin and his assassin, Yigal Amir, during the two years leading up to the murder, and sets the scene to the two decades that followed.

Ephron is an award-winning writer, who has served as the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek and the Daily Beast, and now lives in New York City.

On October 13 2015, Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann analyzed the Jerusalem-specific causes for the current intensification of violence. Seidemann is a leading expert on Arab-Jewish relations in Jerusalem. He is the founder and director of Terrestrial Jerusalem.

This is another in a series of reviews of new books on Middle Eastern affairs. We asked Dr. Gail Weigl, an APN volunteer and a professor of art history, to review Abbie Rosner’s new book about the Arab cuisine of Israel’s Galilee, and about the power of food as a bridge between people.  

APN's Ori Nir interviews Abbie Rosner.

Abbie Rosner, Breaking Bread in Galilee: A Culinary Journey into the Promised Land (Hilayon Press, 2012). 238 pages. $15.00

Although the average reader probably would not choose to emulate the laborious food gathering and preparation described in Abbie Rosner’s appealing book, the author herself emerges as a woman it would be delightful to know. From her passion for learning about the traditional food ways of her Bedouin and fellaheen (subsistence farmers) neighbors, to her deep and informed appreciation for the agricultural and culinary practices they preserve, Ms. Rosner’s respect for and tireless curiosity about the customs preserved in Israel’s Upper Galilee is both astounding and inspiring.

Listen to the APN interview with Liat Schlesinger, who heads the Investigative Research Department at Molad, a progressive Israeli think tank, on a report she recently authored on the phenomenon known as Price Tag.

Listen to the August 6th Briefing Call with:

Hagit Ofran
Peace Now Settlement Watch Director

Hagit discussed the latest developments in regard to Israeli settler extremists, settlements in the West Bank and Israeli government settlement construction policy, as well as Peace Now’s recent rally against Jewish terrorism and incitement, other recent successful Peace Now activities.

Listing to a recording: Hagit Ofran briefing 6 Aug 2015

Interview with Iran expert Meir Javedanfar. An Iranian-born Israeli who co-authored a book on Iran's leadership and teaches courses on contemporary Iranian politics at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Javedanfar is well-positioned to analyze attitudes toward the agreement both in Israel and in Iran. The interview is about 10 minutes long.

Interview with Barbara Slavin, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, an Iran policy expert, on the impact of the new agreement on Iran and on prospects that the new agreement may serve to stimulate reform in Iran, going beyond Iran's nuclear ambitions. The interview is about 8 minutes long.